Abstract
BackgroundThe majority of studies of the local food environment in relation to obesity risk have been conducted in the US, UK, and Australia. The evidence remains limited to western societies. The aim of this paper is to examine the association of local food environment to body mass index (BMI) in a study of older Japanese individuals.MethodsThe analysis was based on 12,595 respondents from cross-sectional data of the Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study (AGES), conducted in 2006 and 2007. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), we mapped respondents' access to supermarkets, convenience stores, and fast food outlets, based on a street network (both the distance to the nearest stores and the number of stores within 500 m of the respondents' home). Multiple linear regression and logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between food environment and BMI.ResultsIn contrast to previous reports, we found that better access to supermarkets was related to higher BMI. Better access to fast food outlets or convenience stores was also associated with higher BMI, but only among those living alone. The logistic regression analysis, using categorized BMI, showed that the access to supermarkets was only related to being overweight or obese, but not related to being underweight.ConclusionsOur findings provide mixed support for the types of food environment measures previously used in western settings. Importantly, our results suggest the need to develop culture-specific approaches to characterizing neighborhood contexts when hypotheses are extrapolated across national borders.
Highlights
The majority of studies of the local food environment in relation to obesity risk have been conducted in the US, UK, and Australia
It seems critical to expand the range of the empirical evidence base linking local food environments to obesity, and to test the generalizability of the findings reported in some western countries vis à vis food outlets
By using multiple measures previously used in western countries, the aim of this paper is to explore whether or not associations between neighborhood food environment and body mass index (BMI) are observed among Japanese older adults
Summary
The majority of studies of the local food environment in relation to obesity risk have been conducted in the US, UK, and Australia. The aim of this paper is to examine the association of local food environment to body mass index (BMI) in a study of older Japanese individuals. In a recent systematic review of 54 US-based studies on neighborhood food environment, Larson et al [2] concluded that residents of neighborhoods with better access to supermarkets The vast majority of the studies on the relationship between food environment and obesity have been conducted in a western setting, primarily North America, the UK, and Australia [3,7,8]. A dearth of studies have been conducted in other societal contexts, where western assumptions about the local food environment may not apply because of cultural variations in food shopping and consumption practices
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